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What I figured. Oh well.
I knew I screwed up when I saw the bolt sticking out. It was about 1/4” too long. I was hoping it just squished it a little. Lol
That was my impression as well, I thought a vacuum test was done to check for leaks, guess not. It’s not like they didn’t have time to. They had possession for 5 days while I was out of town.
Maybe they’ll cut me a deal to recharge it.
I already ordered the new condenser and the proper bolts. Both should be here by Saturday so I’ll do it all this weekend while I’ve got 4 days off.
Just to get the proper terminology here, evacuation is vacuuming the system down after the system is recovered. The machines they use do multiple things. Some are more "complex" then others but the basics are three functions, recovery, evacuation, and recharge. During recovery, the machine uses a compressor to suck the refrigerant out to a certain level of vacuum, usually around 13" Hg. Some more complex units monitor the weight of the refrigerant going into the recovery bottle with a scale and stop sucking when it sees no more weight being added to the bottle. Most units, you just stop recovery manually for the same reason. Now the whole recovery process is not needed if the system is empty, and the tech can go right to the evacuation process in which a deeper, longer vacuum is attained (29.9"Hg with a loss of 1"Hg for every 1000 ft of elevation) It is also at this point that any part replacement would be done and any oil be added (if your adding oil manually.) Some machines have oil injections units built into them that add oil after the evacuation process is done. Or separate oil injection units are used at the same point. If doing it manually your supposed to add a certain amount of oil for each component replaced (ie 1-2 oz for a condenser replacement, 3-4 oz for a compressor, etc.) Some compressors come with oil in them and this is usually stated on the new compressor. One other thing about adding oil manually before the evacuation process is that you could potentially vacuum out some of the oil in the system, so I always recommend putting oil in after the evacuation process.
At some point during the evacuation, the valves need to be closed and vacuum should hold on a leak-free system. If not then as 19963 said you use whatever leak detection method you use.
Now evacuation does several things. Most importantly it boils off any moisture in the system. Moisture is a system killer for many reasons I wont get into but you want NO moisture so the longer the evacuation the better. Now if the system is all new parts and has never had refrigerant in it then the evacuation process can be less. It also provides vacuum which helps suck in the appropriate freon and oil charge.
Lastly is the charge process. Most machines have a way to charge from the recovery bottle or a virgin bottle. I recommend charging with virgin refrigerant. The recovery bottle has your refrigerant and many other customers refrigerant in it. Some could have used a blend or something else (propane) so you could have a witches brew in your recovery bottle. Now some of the "complex" machines have a refrigerant detector built into them that sample the refrigerant before it's recovered. Or you can have a separate unit that does the same thing. A lot of shops do use these so they can reuse the refrigerant they recover and cut expenses.
Charging is simply programming your weight and pressing a button on most units. Some shops may use a separate weight scale and place the bottle on the scale and tare it out then use the valves on a set of gauges to stop flow once the proper amount of weight has come out of the scaled bottle. Now, I like to charge through the hi side to watch the pressure SLOWLY go up on the low side. This tells me the orifice tube/expansion valve is doing it's job. It also wont slug the suction side with liquid refrigerant which could lock your compressor up if you immediately start the vehicle after charging through the low side. Also, if you cant finish a charge (which you should be able to do if you did everything properly) then you can start the vehicle and use the vehicles compressor to pull in the appropriate charge.
Hope this explanation helps someone who would like to know what techs are doing when they service your AC system. I see a lot of questions about AC on here (especially when it 100 degrees outside) and thought it might help someone (maybe even an aspiring tech) know what's going on in an AC service. There's obviously much more on the diagnostic side and learning the basics of what is actually happening in the high and low sides of the AC system helps immensely with this. But it all starts with that first hand held set of manifold gauges.
